Careless
by Nine Sixteenths
Summary: After haunting voices claw at the Saffron City Gym Leader's nightmares, Sabrina is forced to ask Ash Ketchum to return to the Kanto region immediately. The nightmares cease and the voices hush as soon as the male Trainer is captured and imprisoned by unknown forces. Sabrina finally finds peace... but not within herself. She sets out to rescue the soul of the man she had sacrificed.


Far into the west, covered under a peculiar sky of ever-changing colors, sat the eerie city of Saffron. There, things of the dark came in the form of silent groups that enforced unspoken rituals with fervent devotion and clandestine individuals that worshipped things of the queer and strange. It was a freakish land of concrete and steel; one that would swallow those who were never careful to watch their tongues or thoughts.

Distanced into the east, clouded by menacing clouds of unknown shades, stood the chilling town of Lavender. In its shadow, things of the dark came in the form of lost spirits who waited hopelessly for their salvation and tortured beings of the otherworldly that preyed on those who held no defense to them. It was a frightful land of legends and stories; one that would punish those who showed no respect for those that have passed.

Yet between them sat a land that seemed unremarkable in comparisons. It was a location of no renown and minimum significance to those who cared little for the unknowable. A place with a name that was deceitful in its simplicity, and trivial in its meaning: Route 8.

Trainers, Breeders, Watchers, Tourists, and even Professors would pass through its roads and small pathways with little care and attention. The trails it offered for driving, riding, and walking held no unique feature other than its few twists and turns – and its natural scenery offered little in eventful or precious views. For all those that travelled along its passages, Route 8 was just a simple road, dwarfed by the historical giants it connected together.

However, to the Psychics of Saffron and the Ghosts of Lavender, Route 8 was a menacing landmark that acted as their deterrent and barrier from one another. Very few connected to the supernatural dared to walk its surface, and even fewer knew exactly why they had feared it.

The last remaining Psychic that understood Route 8's unfathomable origins, now traversed into its shadowed roads.

A path, obscured by twisting trees and illusions cursed into the rock-walled cliffs, spiraled deep into a realm not meant to be tread by those foreign to its parts. Inside lay a world of its own – separate and unrelated to the one just steps outside of it. Thunderstorms of no strength or physicality would swarm the skies above, offering the only reflections of light from a source that never existed. The land below reeked of pestilence and decay – some of warm and soft substances never meant to be touched – others of cold and sharp surfaces never meant to be seen. Phantom towers and passages would appear and disappear as if time had drawn and erased them from its indecisive realities. Deaf calls, blind cries, and bodiless wails shivered in the air, owned by figures and forms that held no sense of their own. It was a world that shadowed all others, cradling things never meant to be created and always wished to be forgotten. It was infinitely vast – having neither beginning nor end – having no measure or solidarity.

Yet despite its enormity, the realm existed only in the form of a cavern. A cavern of ever-changing size and material, but still a cavern bound by physical definitions. The sickening narrow walkways and tunnels offered several false exits and areas of deceitful comforts. For those blessed enough to not have fallen to any of its corrupting fates, the road they sought would lead them to the destination they desired. Though those that desired anything within the confines of a vile and twisted world were far too foolish to exist.

The Psychic that walked into its grasp was foolish, and she accepted the insult.

Sabrina, the Psychic Master, the incomparable Mind of Saffron City, crept slowly to her desired destination. Where she fought temptations and insanity to reach, had formed itself into a derelict mansion of unknown histories. Its rotting walls and decaying floors creaked sporadically under phantom pressures and movements. A foul wind of freezing touch and broken movements carried a terrible stench that should have belonged to nothing at all. And a deafening silence roared infinitely within its empty halls.

She peered deep into the darkness ahead of her. Within her senses, she felt as if the mansion was surrounded in nightfall. But the light expected from the late hour's skies never appeared. No moon or star shone its glow – as if the land was far too poisoned to be graced by any comfort.

Her fingers slid carefully along the splintered surfaces surrounding her. The touch of them had reminded her that the place had once been a warm home, but actions too abominable to mention had cursed it into a cold dungeon for the unforgivable. A drop of liquid tainted her fingertip. _Blood._

A scream shrieked through the air. The sound came from something hollow, yet more than alive – as if the tongue and lungs that had produced its pitch had been mangled and torn by horrifying procedures. Following its warning, a mirror to her right shattered, its pieces thrown across the floor. The scream soon murmured into silence, returning only as warped mewls. Mewls that begged and pleaded for company. Whoever owned the voice was no longer anything human – disfigured beyond any form of recognition or sanity. Just their voice told as much. Just their voice gave more reason to avoid its source.

Sabrina grit her teeth. It had taken all of her focus to prevent herself from breaking under the sensations that clawed at her mind. Cold sweat slipped down her cheek. She was scared. Frightened. Though she knew that everything around her was only an illusion within her world, her body betrayed her by falling into its spell.

_This world is only false out there. Within these walls, I am the one artificial in nature._

The concept of the twisted reality pushed the Psychic further into anxiety. She was trapped in a nightmare, one that constantly attempted to trap her inside for all eternity. Despite all her power, it mattered little within this world. Despite being a master and monster within her realm, she was far less than anything that mattered within this one. She was a Psychic. And her vast mind was nothing but a delicacy within the Forbidden Caverns.

Dark creatures ruled the Forbidden Caverns. Creatures who were neither beast, spirit, alien, nor pokémon. They were creatures that had existed far longer than one could imagine, and creatures that have never existed at all. Within the world of the physical, they only came in the form of nightmares and delusions made by the broken minded, spirited, and hearted. Feeding off of the most debased and despicable wills and desires of all living creatures, they shaped themselves into true monsters – miscreations of those that yearned for 'something more'. Their very universe was described to be a sentient being of untold proportions, a miscreation in itself that fueled the horrific imaginations of those unwilling to face the dark corners of their mind.

Through defiled sacrifices and blighted contracts, doorways from the physical universe into the universe of no identity were torn open. From these openings, many unnameable acts were committed. From these openings, many souls were dragged into its shadows from simply making contact. One of these openings had become known as the Forbidden Caverns – a product of the incalculable energies that clashed between the city of Saffron and town of Lavender.

It was in the Forbidden Caverns that a young man named Ash Ketchum had lost himself within.

And it was in the Forbidden Caverns that Sabrina searched for him.

By her urgent request to meet with him again, Ash Ketchum had returned to the region of Kanto between his Tourney seasons. In his journey to her destination, he had mysteriously disappeared in the forests of Route 8. It was a fact that Sabrina had known only because of the nightmares she had experienced for several nights in a row.

The Psychic Master had known that Ash would be taken into the Forbidden Caverns – the lipless voices and the skinless hands would call for him every night. They called for him eternally, as if they always have, becoming louder throughout physical time. Their calls were once gentle, formless, and welcoming – attached to no name, but still solid in their requests. Yet their voices became louder, their hands grasped harder, in just the week alone, Sabrina found herself grasping out into the air, screaming Ash's name as if she were one of the creatures of no form or identity.

She had known that they had wanted him. And she had requested for him to come in order to find out why… yet deep down she knew that he would be taken before he would ever reach her.

He was taken because of her. He was gone because of her. The nightmares had stopped – the shouts and thrusts for his essence no longer echoed within her mind – and all felt at peace. Except within herself. Sabrina had sacrificed someone who had meant something to her. She had sacrificed the only one to have ever helped her when those more powerful had failed. She had given up the young man that had given her a new chance at life. She betrayed him.

She was foolish. She had made a mistake.

Sabrina pushed herself, forcing strength to return to her legs. She stepped forward, advancing with tried courage. Her senses moved downwards, listening to the disquieting creaks of the floorboards beneath her. Every step was followed by the sound, making her presence obvious to the creatures that wandered the mansion's emptied halls. Her Psychic abilities allowed her to see deeper into the energies surrounding her, but only thoughts of both the maniacal and the deranged would seep back into her mind.

The voices. _The voices. The hands._

They called for her. Different than the lipless voices. Different from the skinless hands. Their calls were made just for her. Her father's voice would speak to her. Her mother's hands would welcome her home. They would remind her what she needed to do. And what she had to do, she could never remember. She would ask them, "What do I need –?"

Before her question could complete its intended point, a vision would flash in her mind. Within the vision, she sat atop a tall stool. Staring down at her wrists, she would find that she had no instrument to play. She had to play a song. That was what the voices told her – that was what the hands showed her. "But I have no instrument to play."

"Your body can provide you with beautiful instruments." her father would say.

Her mother's gentle hands would trace lines along her arms, showing her where the instruments hid themselves.

"Of course. I forgot." Sabrina would say to herself with an embarrassed laugh.

Following her parents' instructions, she pierced her fingernails into her wrist's skin. Blood seeped slowly and she would begin to cry.

"Don't cry." her father comforted her, "It hurts because it's giving you the most special of instruments."

Her mother's sensitive hands would slide the crimson liquid across her skin, as if showing that it was just like paint. Paint just for her precious, new instrument.

Sabrina smiled and dug her fingers deep. With an excited grin, she slowly tucked her fingertips into the flesh, finding where her most special strings were. They were attached tightly to other instruments inside her arm. If she could only detach them quickly, they would stop hurting. Leaning down, she bit into her strings, shredding them from what held them in place. Centimeter by centimeter, the thick threads pulled away from her flesh and skin, straightening themselves across her chest and chin as she lifted them back with her teeth.

"There we go. Now you have yourself your very own violin strings."

Her mother's caring hands tapped against her exposed tissues – showing her where the accompanying bow was placed.

A broken laugh seeped through her throat. She reached down and –

Awoke. Sabrina's eyes were widened, her skin paled in pure fright. She quickly looked at her arms and felt at her teeth. No marks, no pained sensation, no _delicious_ flavors on her tongue. The violin – The vision was gone. Again. It had been her fourth time experiencing it. And it was far more vivid in each succession.

For every attempt she had made with her mental abilities to reach out and find her bearings, her mind would blank to the same images and thoughts. It was only through tried concentration that she could escape herself before the scenes fully played out. And in her last evasion, she realized that her right hand had latched itself firmly to her left wrist – ready to play out what her visions called her to do.

_No more Psychic abilities. No more._

Her hands balled into fists, attempting to stop the shaking in them. The world was corrupting her. The longer she had spent time within its realm, the more she became aware of the sickest parts of herself. A feeling at the pit of her stomach was growing. Within it, all the most twisted and most impure desires began to reveal themselves. Curious thoughts that she had joked about in the past were now serious considerations. Impossible things she had never thought of were now strange obsessions that she could not forget. And all ideas that had made sense and held a moral truth were now mundane restrictions that held down her true sense of freedom.

"_**SABRINA! SNAP OUT OF IT!"**_ Ash's voice cried out.

But his voice held no sound. The Psychic's consciousness returned to its resolute state, remembering what she truly needed to do. In its awareness, she had realized that she couldn't hear Ash's voice. There was no echo, no vibration, and no physical memory of his shout. Yet she could have sworn that she had heard it. _He's here. He's nearby._

Sabrina returned to her search, and silence had welcomed her back. The mansion's shadowed halls were set before her yet again. Like Ash's voice, the mansion made no sound. All that could be heard were the quickening pulses of her heart and the breaths that she dearly wished were her own. Someone – Something was breathing against her shoulder. She walked forward and it followed. Every few steps the breaths would fade, as if falling behind. Her hope of it disappearing would disintegrate as it would growl loudly in its attempt to catch up with her. It wanted to follow her. To watch her. But no essence of 'why' could be felt. Like all other things within the broken reality, it had lost all meaning.

Its hoarse respirations sent chills down Sabrina's spine. But the familiar hollow whistle that she heard hidden inside its every exhale froze her blood cold. Whoever – Whatever it was behind her, was the same source of the scream she had heard uncountable moments before. A thick gurgling sound was made as it sped itself to reach her pace again.

Every part of herself told her to run. But she knew that to do so would coax it. Coax it into doing what, she didn't know, and she didn't want to know. The sick feeling inside her stomach resurfaced, alluring her to the demented things the creature would do to her if she agitated it. She wanted to silence the feeling, to reason with herself that what she was experiencing was simply a false perception of reality. But without her Psychic abilities, she felt vulnerable and exposed – convincing her logic otherwise with an acceptance of her eternal cage within the nightmare world.

_Sabrina. Snap out of it._ She repeated to herself Ash's unspoken words. Without his voice, the words held far less meaning – but they were enough to keep her walking forward.

Down the hallway she walked, following the path she innately knew was the correct one. Her mind continued to battle the second-guesses that troubled her every step. Her ears struggled to ignore the wheezing behind her, to ignore its ever-approaching touch and stench. Her legs pushed to keep themselves from buckling entirely. Rows of doorways blinked into view – they had always been there, she had only forgotten.

Still, despite their notice, she walked on. Doorway after doorway was passed, each one offering her taboo rewards, enticing punishments, and confusing promises. She battled them, ignored them, and pushed away from them.

Her eyes shifted away as one door creaked open. Its inhabitant, a small, hollow-eyed child, begged her quietly to place something _delicious_ on her tongue. Terrible thoughts of what 'delicious' meant ran quickly through her. The child vanished, but the thoughts lingered.

Another door slammed itself shut. Moans and grunts of pleasure came from inside. Other sounds of sickly things revealed what was occurring in its walls. The sensual voices within gave no feeling of seduction or perverted hunger, however. Only a sense of absolute dread. Only Death and decay waited inside, yet she found a curiosity of greeting it with open arms. Eventually the sounds stopped, but the thoughts lingered.

A final doorway was left beside a staircase. Its entrance was left wide open. No glow. No sound. No sensation. It was empty and hollow. She was thankful for its mercy as she passed it.

"Wait, Sabrina!" Ash's voice called out to her – this time with sound.

"Ash!" She turned towards the doorway.

Her face turned pale. Within her view stood Ash. The once-empty room he occupied was now brightly lit as her own room within the Saffron City Gym. Its violet and pink décor was tarnished and stained by unnameable fluids and marks. A doppelganger of herself accompanied Ash, committing heinous acts on his body. Others were involved, people she knew, people she didn't, pokémon, creatures, and animals she had never seen, all of them treating each other into painful ecstasy and babbling states of madness.

"Sabrina… come inside."

"No…"

"This is what you want."

"No!"

"This is what you need."

Ash's body stiffened in confused sensations, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as his system was overloaded by the terrible actions that Sabrina's doppelganger forced on him. A twisted smile rested on his lips. His tongue hung loosely from his mouth. The expression on his face was mesmerizing, inviting, promising, and cheering. _It was all wrong._ Everything inside was wrong. Yet to be drowned within its complete corruption would have been the sweetest and most addicting sensation that her body, heart, mind, and spirit could ever experience in all of existence. _This is what… I need._ Her entire essence longed and ached to enter the room.

But with a broken heart, she reached inside and closed its entrance. "No."

The noises from within disappeared immediately, forever barring her from that satisfying fate. _Unless I open the door again._ But she refused herself. She turned and began to work her way up the staircase. The staircase was the path she had been intending to take, and she had nearly lost herself from reaching her destination.

Her body weakened tremendously. Her head felt light. Her heart felt confused. And her spirit was near breaking. The thoughts lingered. Everything the twisted illusions around her offered continued to echo in her every pulse, her every thought, her every feeling, and her every being. She had made the mistake of giving up Ash to this world, she had made the mistake of entering it so unprepared, and now she felt like the greatest mistake was to not give into it. But something pushed her on. She didn't know what, but she secretly desired it could grant her rewards and punishments far greater than this world promised.

Reaching the top of the stairs, she found another long hallway… though this only led to one door. _One last door._

No feeling of jubilation or relief entered Sabrina's battered essence. She only continued to walk forward. Her steps stumbled one after the other, reflecting the snapping of her mind under the weight of the reality around and within her. Soon she would be free from it. Or soon she would be a slave to it. She needed to be free, but wanted to be held prisoner. Her reasons of being here were deteriorating in meaning, and all that was left were her last traces of obligation and faint hope. Hope for what, she had no clue. But hope existed regardless.

A moist panting was felt against her neck. It was the unknown screamer again, following her, watching her. Within her fading state, Sabrina noticed that the walls were expanding slightly in size and shape – and within uncountable time would contract back to its original state. They had been doing so since she had arrived in the mansion, but her awareness had blinded her from it. Now that she could see it clearly in her rotting mind, she realized that the walls were moving in time with the screamer's breath. The screamer was not a prisoner of the mansion. The screamer was not an inhabitant of the mansion. The screamer was the mansion. It was always following her. Always watching her. It invited her in and created the paths that she had originally desired, and presented her the options she never knew she desired.

But she desired them now. She knew that she could turn back and change her mind, to change her desires and needs. The tainted world that she was in could be her new home. Her new body. Her new mind, heart, and spirit… if she could just fight the last remaining pieces of herself that kept her walking forward.

As if reacting to her newfound desire, the breathing grew louder. A fleshy hiss of sounds escaped its ravaged throat. It murmured something, words and sentiments that couldn't be understood. Connected with its voice, the mansion moved to the murmurs. Sliding to the center of the hallway, a side table blocked Sabrina's immediate path to the door.

Her tired body bumped into it clumsily… yet she still attempted to climb over the ancient furniture. _No, stop… I don't want to keep going._

Murmurs gurgled into warped sobs, its tune and pitch wavering terribly. With every freakish whimper and rough howl, walls bent and splintered into threatening shapes. The previously-simple hallway had contorted into a forest of shattered spears. Clods of rotting flesh and dark blood hung and peeled from every tip – remains of those who had given up their will to become a part of the mansion. Detestable pools of bile and bodily fluids marked the floors and ceilings. They reflected a strange light. They smelled of a curious tinge. They were welcoming her to her new life and preventing her from looking back to her old one.

Sabrina's body forced itself into a run, crashing into and through the cascade of obstacles with a frustrated roar. Slivers of wood and chunks of rusted metal lodged themselves and broke apart against her tearing clothes. Blood was dripping freely from every part of her body from the hundreds of wounds that continued to mark her once-unblemished skin. Despite the pain, she pressed on. Despite the unwillingness, she moved forward.

A cold touch clung to her fingertips. The doorknob. She had reached the door.

_Stop me, please._

Her desire was granted. The wooden frame of the door cracked into pieces, impossibly melting its form around her hand. The wood had solidified in an instant, trapping her wrist to the doorknob, yet preventing it to turn. She was finally caught and disallowed from moving any further. _I'm done now. I'm a prisoner. Take me._

The breath howled lowly in the distance. It made no audible intention, yet in its nonsense, Sabrina knew it had asked her to turn towards it. To finally face the abomination that would be her salvation from the physical world. _No more care. No more will. Just every sensation and everything beyond it for eternity. Let me face you!_

With a snap, the wooden holds around her wrist rotted away completely. She was freed, and she turned to face her new master.

"_**Your shoe's untied."**_

Sabrina looked down.

…

She was wearing heels.

The sight of it made her purse her lips in annoyance. Ash's voice had distracted her by mere milliseconds from gaining a full view of her watcher. To make matters further frustrating, the intoxicating sensations that were coursing through every part of her essence had been interrupted and silenced. Sabrina was left standing awkwardly, staring at her feet stupidly for a childish trick.

A smile formed across her face as she began to chuckle.

Angered howls and screams pierced through the air, forcing the Psychic's body and mind to be filled with twisted lusts and perverse wanting. However, her chuckle had left her at a strange state. The feelings that ran through her body tickled at her stomach, and the strange thoughts that hammered at her mind seemed silly and ridiculous in second-viewing.

Sabrina laughed harder. Snorting loudly, "I don't have any laces!"

Her cheerful change of heart and spirit revived her will into action. She turned and placed her hand on the doorknob again. The being behind her cried in protest. Sabrina simply raised a finger in its direction without turning. "Shush. I'm busy." Her hand twisted the knob and pulled.

Light flashed around her, immediately swallowing up the mansion's shadows and the world's darkness. Colors of every shade quickly burst into being and rained down into collective forms and functions. She blinked and gaped at the beautiful sight, caught up in the wonder. Within seconds, the colors began to take shape – creating brown and slate cliffs, forest green and olive drab trees, white and sky blue atmospheres, and rows of complementary and triadic colored flowers. The view around her hand changed drastically. No longer trapped within an ever-maddening nightmare filled with chaos and cravings, she had ended up in a world of wondrous design and purpose.

She was safely returned to the physical world. Unharmed and unscathed within the paths Route 8. In front of the forest of trees that she had traversed into to save a young man she owed.

And there, sitting gleefully in front of her, was the young man. Ash Ketchum. She owed him yet again. "It's been a while, Sabrina." were his first words to her.

Her body stiffly leaned forward, then bobbed back, then forward again. She was unsure of what she should do at this moment, but her arms had automatically risen to hip-level.

The young man stared at her curiously before understanding what she didn't know how to express. Ash shuffled forward and wrapped his arms around her.

She embraced him awkwardly. A genuine grin formed across her lips. "It's been too long, Ash!" she shouted back in response. She squeezed him tighter, pressing his head against her cheek happily. The friendliness of his voice, the warmth of his closeness, and the soothing scent of his hair combined into a trifecta of sensations that she was never used to experiencing. A strange laugh escaped her lips.

"_Wh-What's so funny?_" he asked with a muffle.

"I… I don't know." she answered nervously, "I just feel really happy right now."

"_S-Sabrina? Can you let go now? I can't breathe._"

"Oh!" Sabrina let loose her hold and backed away immediately. She bowed with a peculiar smile. "My apologies, Ash. I guess I was just swept up in the moment."

"I'm sure it's normal to get excited about leaving some nightmare world."

She chuckled at his nonchalant joke. "I'd hope it is."

"Thank you, by the way." He smiled softly and nodded. "I wouldn't have ever gotten out of there if it wasn't for your help."

Sabrina shook her head. "I should be the one thanking you. If it weren't for you and your words, neither of us would have escaped."

"Well, it was my fault that I ended up in there in the first place…"

"And it was my fault for sending you there." The Psychic frowned and placed her palm against his forehead. Within seconds, she mentally revealed to him all that had occurred in the days passed – showing him her direct fault and responsibility of what had transpired to him. "I'm… so terribly sorry, Ash." Her shared memories ended, leading up to the exact point in time they found themselves freed from the Forbidden Caverns. "You never deserved this."

His answer to the shared memories wasn't what she was expecting, "You still came for me. When you didn't have to."

"But… But I did! I owed you, Ash! I owed you more than you could imagine. And I just…"

"It's okay. I'm fine now. You saved me."

"But I –"

"You want to owe me: I'm starving. You wouldn't happen to have anything on you, would you?"

…

Sabrina found herself laughing again. Ash's simplistic view of a devastating event caused her heart to overfill with joy. She wrapped her arms around him again and took a deep breath of his hair. The repeated collection of sensations tingled delightfully inside her body. "…Okay. I'll take you out somewhere special then. My treat."

"Really? Haha, awesome! Where to?"

"That's a surprise." She latched onto his arm, dragging him towards Saffron City.

The two of them travelled down the road in glee, chatting and chuckling soundly as they spoke of events and people they had been involved with since their last meeting – caring little for the twisted memories they had created within the other realm.

"By the way, Ash? How were you able to keep your sanity in the Forbidden Caverns?"

"Huh? Oh, that was easy. I was too busy worrying about… OH NO! I FORGOT THAT I LEFT PIKACHU AT THE AIRPORT!" Ash stumbled sideways and hurriedly pulled at Sabrina's arm, dragging her towards Lavender Town. "Come on! I think he's still in the food court!"

The two of them travelled down the road in panicked elation, shouting and laughing loudly as they traded stories and jokes of situations similar and unlike the problem they faced now. Their silhouettes sparked and faded into the sunset, travelling together towards a future they now held together in each other's hands and voices.

Its task was taken. And its purpose was completed. The Forbidden Caverns disappeared slowly into Route 8's cliff walls and thickened trees, vanishing from the realm of physical view and immediate memories… Its essence returned to a dreamless slumber, waiting for the unnumbered day it is to be woken once again by those who are meant to change the world.


End file.
